On 09 Apr, 2005, at 09:16, John Ellingsworth wrote:
This article provides aome analysis about the 'plan' for wireless here, which Magill referenced previously.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1784281,00.asp
One of the more interesting comments in the article:
"In other words, Philadelphia itself will become a customer even though it owns the network."
That's news to me. Nothing I have heard or read implies that the City will wind up owning anything except the PR from this venture. [Where PR can be good, bad or indifferent.]
Another is:
"That's certainly admirable. But you have to wonder why Philadelphia didn't invest the $10 million in computer labs for its schools or public libraries."
"Supposedly," the City is NOT spending ANY money, not even the $10 million number tossed around.
For one thing, they have already moved it "off budget" by creating a NGO, (identical to Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae) which (again supposedly) has no access to ANY City dollars, tax provided or otherwise, but which will some how sell "revenue" bonds to be repaid by the income received by the ISPs.
Two requirements in the RFP have generated some seriously wide-eyed responses from the technical community...
"Support for seamless, in-motion usage throughout the Coverage Area by subscribers with service provisioned through a SP. This includes the ability for subscribers to maintain “session-level” persistence while the subscriber’s device is in motion at speeds up to sixty (60) miles per hour. This capability must be supported with no interruption to applications running on the device.
"Support for defining and managing unilateral, inbound roaming relationships whereby subscribers to other Wi-Fi services (e.g. T-Mobile, Sprint) may gain access to the System. WP will be responsible for the negotiation of any business relationships with other Wi-Fi service providers and/or aggregators."
Needless to say, we aren't talking about your favorite (i.e. cheap) 802.11x service here. Especially since one finds this comment - "other Wi-Fi services (e.g. T-Mobile, Sprint)" - except that, to the best of my knowledge, neither T-Mobile nor Sprint provide Wi-Fi service, but rather "packet radio" (i.e. wireless) communications services -- a big difference.
Charitable comments about the RPF have been -- "That RFP sounded like someone was dreaming." I'd be much more inclined to say "someone was ingesting hallucinogenic substances."
This thing is going to be VERY interesting to watch unfold.
T.T.F.N. William H. Magill [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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